Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

• Who does the Internet serve, the public or the corporations?

  Date: 2010.10.24 | Category: IM11002 | Response: 6

  Well lets start off with the public.  We use the internet for interaction through email and Facebook etc.  We shop through a vast selection of online stores such as eBay snd Amazon.  We watch countless videos on Youtube.  We now have greater connectivity than ever but we seem to neglect the usefulness of the internet to an extent.

  Did we really need to tell that distant friend on facebook that you had a sore head two nights ago?  Did we really have to buy that keyring on ebay or was that just for the excitment of bidding on an auction?  Did we really need to watch that video of the kitten dancing?  These are classic examples of what the corporations have pushed us to do which we would never have thought about years ago.  This shows that the public have freedom online but at the same time the corporations seem to be luring this unto us.  So who does the internet serve the public or the corporations?  It looks like both as they are helping to serve each other through the Internet.

• Social Netwoking – Good or Bad?

  Date: 2010.09.22 | Category: IM11002 | Response: 0

  Hi again,

  Social Networking has really taken off in the online world, but is this having a significant change in the way we behave?

  The Telegraph had an interesting article by Andrew Keen which stated that, Baroness Susan Greenfield – Oxford Professor of neuroscience and the Director of the Royal Institute- says “electronic media, especially social networking sites, are replacing children’s deep cognitive skills with short-term sensory ones, thereby trivializing their notion of real friendship and community.”  This shows that social networking sites are possibly causing some people trouble when they try to understand friendships or some might not know how to interact with someone face to face.  Also there have been some cases of cyber bullying via sites like Facebook and Twitter which can have a very serious impact on peoples lives.

  However is this an extreme perspective on social networking, as you could argue that Facebook, for example, is allowing people from every area of the world to connect to each other in ways that was never possible a few years ago.  You could say that today’s generation has the greatest interaction than any other previous generations.  It also has benefits such as to keep in touch with family and friends that you don’t see very much, rather than have a huge phone bill!

  So has interaction actually improved via social networking?  It has positives and negatives which most things in life does.